Artistic Progression
It was in the 1950s that I trace back the beginnings of art in my life. My mom had desires of being a commercial artist. But that never worked out for her. There was a parade that was going to occur in town, Campbell California, and my mom was the person who made the posters that hung on the cars that were in the parade. That was an influential factor in the concept of art in my mind. In 2006, I began writing a book about the progression of art in my life and I wondered when I recognize art was an interest to me. I thought it might have been around three and a half or four. I decided to ask my mom and she said she recognized it when I was one and half.
Down town Campbell was only a few blocks from the house. Mom would walk my three sisters and I to the stationary store. That place was like a candy shop to me. It had so many amazing things; finger paints, chalk, pens, pencils, oil paints, paper, scissors, to name a few. Mom knew the storeowner and he would invite us into the backroom. Back there was a large paper cutter sitting at the edge of a table and on the floor, by the edge of the table, was a box that collected all of the extra cuttings and it was this special box that we could grab in and take any and as much paper that we wanted. That was very exciting. So we took the scraps home and we made fun use of them. I wonder if this could be the very beginnings of Trashy Fine Art.
It was in third grade that I recall receiving the first artistic encouragement. And then when junior high school came along, I excelled in any art class I elected to take; it was the same with high school and junior college. Because of the ease of accomplishment in which artistic expression occurred in school, art was the most natural major to state when I transferred to SJSU. I believe it was 1974 and 75, that the art I produced began to have less classical expression. For example, in my watercolor class I composed a biodegradable watercolor from sawdust that I used in the garden and an aluminum structured watercolor, which I recycled. Another one was a collection of different liquids that were bottled in clear Coca Cola bottles. I capped them close with hot wax. At this time I was also producing other nonclassical pieces in painting and drawing.
As time went on, I began collecting free color; stamps on postage, ink tester color on plastic and pager products. I also collected bar codes , maps, numbers and small bits of color that I usually tossed out. After a period of time of collecting a particular free source, I would compose a piece. The two images above are two examples of free color collected that I haven't composed a piece from yet. The color security rings are from plastic caps. The other group are plastic ties that keep closed the opened end of plastic baggings. Both security rings and bag ties are colorful and color that is usually tossed out.
"OILS" can be hanged four different ways. The four different ways are shown above.
"OILS" measures out at, 20" x 22 1/2". "OILS" is formed in the shape of a painter's palette.
Byproduct of "Oils"
The two images above are work surfaces that were used to capture random pigment secretions from the flattening out of the paint tubes used to construct"Oils". The two surfaces are half size sheets of serigraphy paper. Each sheet is, 22 1/2" x 35 . Most of the pigment is captured at two ends of the paper and not much in between. My preference was to flatten the tubes on the width size, rather than the length. The work surface above, at the left, is the first sheet that was worked on. Once the end, that was being worked on, had captured a satisfactory amount of color, the paper was turned to the opposite end. The bottom of the work surface above and to the left, is the first area to have been worked on.
The smearing of the oil paint, on that portion of the work surface, was intentional. After doing that, I decided to let the secretions exclusively depict the action of the flattening of the tubes. Working and capturing the secreted oil paint on the first work surface above, on the left, began on, 8/26/1979 and was finished being working on, 9/20/1979. The second work surface, above, on the right, was begun on, 10/5/1979 and completed on, 11/26/1979. I will be E6000ing these two work surfaces and adding grommets to the four corners for hanging. Each sheet can be hanged four different ways.
"Oils" a closer look
The image above is a close up, partial view of "OILS". The flattened out paint tubes are riveted together. The remaining pigment that squished out during the flattening of the tube, adds a great coloration to the piece. Some paint tubes had quite an excess of pigment. I squished the excess on a glass surface and made a couple pieces out of that. "OILS" is topped off with a surface layer of E 6000 for protection and general preservation of the color . The piece itself, "OILS", is bolted to a clear plexiglass backing to keep it firm. The piece is hanged by one, of four, fifteen pound, picture wire. The wires are attached to the bolts that attach the riveted tubes to the plexiglass. One of the bolts can be seen in the bottom quarter of the image above.
A Second Byproduct of "Oils"
The two byproduct pieces above are from Trashy Fine Art 2.0, so also are the two work surfaces. They were completed in the last quart of 1 9 7 9 . So, "Oils", of Trashy Fine Art 3.0, was completed 42 years later. The oil droppings and smears are on, 16" x 20", sheets of glass. The glass has a Trashy Fine Art story.
One of my gardening customers owned a property with an abandon
chicken coop. In the coop was a stack of sheets of glass so I asked Lucy, my customer, if she had any use for them and she said no; they've been sitting there for years. So she gave them to me. Like salvaging color, the sheets of glass were also salvaged, which follows suit with Trashy Fine Art.
The sheets of glass are clear. I set the pieces on a grainy, dirty white surface to take the photo of them: that is what is being seen as background.
Trashy Fine Art 3.0 "Comics"
"Comics" was an intense production. It didn't start out that way. But that is how it progressed to be. Both the front and back are composed of small cut-ups of news paper comic strips. Colored news paper comics have a lot of free color. I don't remember where I salvaged the news papers from or how long I collected them. The original intent for collecting the news papers was not for the comics.
Color and imagery are historically seen on many different surfaces; caves, rocks, animal skins, wood and cloth surfaces. The plan was to glue a number of news print sheets together and use them as a substitute for painting canvas. It was during the process of opening the news print to full-size, that separating the comics out for a project of its own came to mind.
In the first image, above and to the left, is a composition of sliced and diced comic color; it is the colored picture part of a comic strip.
The images are sliced and dice to protect me form any copy right infringement. The outer edges were constructed first and then bits and pieces were built inwardly. Once the outer edges were done and building inwardly begun, I notice the color wasn't as concentrated as I desired. Working to concentrate the color appearance is when the intensity of labor began . As can be seen in the image above and to the left, from top to bottom, there is a patch of gray concentration, then light blue, yellow, green, pink and darker blue. I was very happy when this side was completed.
The flip-side is a composition of the balloon captions. There are some ink tester dots also incorporated on this side. "Comics" measures out at about 33" x 53" . The piece was started on 12/7/ 2019 , and finished on 5/24/2020 . " Comics " is an eight in one piece ; it can be hanged eight different ways; each side, four different ways.
Zoom Ins on"Comics"
.
.
Trashy Fine Art 3.0 "Japanese Wall Hanging"
" Japanese Wall Hanging " measures out at : 4' x 6'. It is composed of cuttings from four different wall hangings. The piece was begun on 5/31/2020. It was finished on 6/26/2020. The wall hangings were salvaged from a gardening client's flooded basement. The water level was 6' high. Or was it 6' deep? The water was pumped out with an electric pump that was rented from a local rental shop. The next process was removing everything from the basement. There was quite a bit of stuff in that basement. The rolled up wallhangings were totally saturated with water from the flooding . I unrolled them and hanged them in the roofed covered carport. They looked delicious. My customer saw me staring at them and said " I know what you're thinking, you want these for your art."
All I could think of saying was, " can I have them ? " After I completed the composition, I showed my customer the finished product. Even though the hangings were totally water damaged, discolored and probably would have been tossed out, my customer wasn't happy that the original hangings were cut up to build "Japanese Wall Hanging". It was dishonoring to the person who originated the wall hangings.
"Japanese Wall Hanging" is a four in one work. It can be hanged four different ways. The image above and to the right is of the back side of "Japanese Wall Hanging". The paper pages are from the first printing of a book I wrote. The first printing was a miss print . There were fifty books of miss print. Which adds up to 11,500 pages to be used for something; minus the ones above.
"EIALTNTBLITLOTGOTF&TS"
The eight and one construction ,"EIALTNTBLITLOTGOTF&TS", was started on June 28, 2020, and was completed on August 4, 2020. The original intent on composing this work was to display a multitude of oil paint blotches with the most amount of their true color. Two works of this flattened LG color were composed and completed in 1980. (They will be presented later in the website .) The oil paint blotches of the two compositions composed in 1980, have been dulled from a process of coloration. As can be seen in the two sides of "EIALTNTBLITLOTGOTF&TS" above, the blotches look just fine with out any additional coloring aid. As was discussed in video 3, the lesions, filled in with black construction paper, were not part of the original concept.
The piece warped and buckled after I did a surfacing of E6000 on it. In order to get "EIALTNTBLITLOTGOTF&TS" to lie flat, I had to relieve the tension of the warps and buckles and that changed the purity of presenting the oil paint blotches as an alone statement. When the thought of how my original intent for " EIALTNTBLITLOTGOTF&TS " was corrupted, another thought came to mind; the Good News of redemption. My original intent was spoiled; not so with the Good News.
Humanity, in its beginning, lived in perfection and innocence until disobedience occurred. That brought on corruption and death. The above work also got corrupted. Although I didn't know that would happen in advance of its construction. Disobedience, corruption and death was known in advance of its occurrence.
A predestined plan of correction was in place and still is. It has been partially completed with the first advent of JESUS , YESHUA, CHRIST, the ONE and only REDEEMER from that corruption and death . HE grants eternal life with HIM and HIS FATHER, to those who believe in HIM. That redemption can't be earned. It is a gift to be received. With that gift, is given the desire and power to turn away from that corrupt nature (2Peter1:3-8) and become a follower of the ONE who made it all possible.
Hence the title: "EIALTNTBLITLOTGOTF&TS"------"Eternity Is A Long Time Not To Be Living In The Light Of The Glory Of The FATHER & The SON". This phrase is written on the outside boarders of the two sides of "EIALTNTBLITLOTGOTF&TS". It is written in twenty-one different languages and represents twenty-six different world populations. Hallelujah!!!
Trashy Fine Art 3.0 "Map"
"Map" is an eight-in-one picture. "Map" is a collective of maps sourced from National Geographic Magazine(NGM). It is also another 4' x 6' construction. NGM maps usually are bordered by a simple black line or lined by a designed line. "Map" mimics that NGM character on both sides. Each side of "Map" was constructed differently. The blue, sea ocean bordered side was composed with a regiment of triangulated pieces. The opposite side, with the more traditional line border, was formed with ripped up segments of NGM maps. The blue bordered "Map" had a stiff, hard edge imagery. The other side had an organic look. After completing the composition on both sides, I decided to segment the visual appearance a bit more. First a 33 1/2" x 58" section was cut out of the inner part of "Map", which produced an additional boarder edge. The total boarder edge increased in size. The new boarder section, varies in size from 7" to 7 1/2" in width. The 33 1/2" x 58" cut out was flipped over to the opposite side.
There still wasn't enough visual variance. So the 33 1/2" x 58" cut out was cut into three strips; each being 58" in length. The middle strip is 14" to 14 1/4" wide. The two strips on either side of the middle one, are 9 3/4" wide. Next a 4" slice was separated from the center of the three lengths. Once that cutting was done, the 33 1/2" x 58" section became nine sections. Those nine sections produced a multiple of variance potential. The combination of the strips on each side of the middle strip, now had four sections that could be moved to four different positions. They could also be flipped over to the other side. The center section had a two position movement, with a flipping to either side. Lastly, the three, four inch sections. cut form the center of the three 58" strips, gave additional variance choices. The construction of "Map" was begun January of 2021 and completed June twenty-sixth of two thousand twenty-one.
Trashy Fine Art 3.0 "Semitransparent III"
The photos above document the beginning construction of "Semitransparent III". It is a composition of free color that is printed on see-through wrappings. The clear polypropylene that the free color is printed on , isn't as clear once it is surfaced with E6000.
The different color sections connect and glue up together very well with E6000. I don't think I would be exaggerating by estimating there to be tens of thousands of free color opportunities in most people gathered cities. Many assorted colors are printed on these types of polymers. .
"Semitransparent III"
"Semitransparent III" measures 4' x 6'. "Semitransparent III" has optional ways of hanging eight different ways or more.
Compared to the clear, non colored areas in video one of this work, the areas in the finished construction becomes more opaque after surfacing with E6000. A coating of E600 converts it to a clouded transparency.
Trashy Fine Art 2.0 "Semitransparent II"
The elements that compose the finished compositions "Semitransparent II", also known as "Transparent Combo", to the middle and far right, came out of the collected and accumulated source pile above,
"Transparent Combo", so far, is the most diverse transparent construction product of "Trashy Fine Art". It has always been one of my favorites. "Transparent Combo" sizes out at
46" x 47". It is an eight in one composition.
"Transparent Combo" was begun November 24th, 2005. The total composition, front and back was completed on 11/25/2005. Surfacing the two sides with E6ooo, took additional time. Special thanks to Bryan Talamante for loaning "Transparent Combo" to me so I could take photos of it for this website.